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At last, actual training for my late May race in Newport, OR has commenced. I’ll be training for 19 weeks (including taper weeks), although I’ve only got a schedule for the next three months at the moment, but that’s more than enough to handle for now.

Here are the differences between “training” and “basebuilding,” at least as far as what Kevin has provided:

I’m still on a three week cycle, with two high mileage/high intensity weeks followed by one lower mileage/high intensity week; but now there are no days off.

Instead of doing faster running by effort, I now have assigned paces that I need to hit. I prefer this, as it’s a truer measuring stick of progress.

Recovery weeks are now in the 70-80 mile range rather than the 60 mile weeks during basebuilding.

I’m running doubles 2-4 days per week now.

The Sunday long runs are getting longer, and three longer races (15-21M) feature Mpace running for a significant chunk of the total distance.

I’ve got a speed session every week with lots of variance in the workouts from week to week: from 200m to 2K repeats. And I’m still doing tempo efforts tacked on to longer general aerobic runs every week.

I’ve got strides every week on one recovery run, but only eight.

The first week of training was, frankly, outstanding. My training diary notes that Tuesday’s tempo run and Friday’s 2 x 1 mile intervals felt way too easy. I have trouble accepting what seems like a jump in fitness at face value, tending more toward blaming the notoriously inaccurate technology I rely on when running inside (uncalibrated treadmill plus sort of calibrated footpod).

I took things outside on Sunday, though, for a half marathon in Central Park. And I was delighted to discover that I could run fast under rotten conditions and less than ideal logistics. So now I’m thinking that I am fitter and faster after all.

Week 2 includes a nice, long tempo session on Wednesday followed by 5 x 1K repeats on Friday and a 20 miler on Sunday. I’m looking forward to it.

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13 Responses

Yay on fitness improvements!! You know I can so relate to the disbelief of getting faster. It’s like you have to wrap your head around the new paces and keep telling yourself, “this isn’t a fluke, it’s real!”

Have a great training week, the interval session sounds tough – may the pace surprise you in it’s painlessness. 😀

Flo, I hear ya. It’s hard to believe when you see a leap in ability, but those advancements do tend to make themselves known in shouts rather than in whispers. I’m equally excited to see the strides you’re making lately. We really need to organize a mutual appreciation society.

And here’s something I’ve been looking for for awhile: a reference from Jack Daniels on “fluke” performances:http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=11036
The “fluke” is the level at which you’re capable of performing under favorable conditions. In other words, that’s the norm, and everything that’s sub-par to that is the true fluke.